


won't you come and put it down on me?

by redluna



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Dom!Dorian, Kink Exploration, M/M, Spanking, sub!cullen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-10
Updated: 2015-03-10
Packaged: 2018-03-17 04:42:01
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3515741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redluna/pseuds/redluna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For once, Dorian can actually claim it was an accident. But that doesn't mean he isn't prepared to reap the rewards. </p><p>...Provided he can figure out how the hell he's meant to do so.</p>
            </blockquote>





	won't you come and put it down on me?

**Author's Note:**

> This all began when a friend over tumblr sent me a prompt simply stating "Cullrian, aftercare," then continued to real life gab with me about what Cullen's secret kink would be. Spanking was a first thought, best thought situation and there was no letting go of it after that.
> 
> Curtis is somewhat based on her here, genderqueerness and all (it couldn't be worked in properly but he's a trans!man, bless him). Plus you have her to thank for all the extra details about just how Cullen likes to position himself.
> 
> And, yes, the title is from Sugar by Maroon 5.

What triggers it all is an honest accident as Dorian will swear up and down later. It was just joking around, a thing that's become common in their shared apartment. Cullen has snatched Dorian's book out of his hands in an effort to make him watch the game on the battered television (the one they both still call football no matter how much time spent in the states).

When Dorian gets his hands on the bundled up belt he means to get a swat in on Cullen's thigh, startle the other man into creating an opening for him to take advantage of. Except Cullen winds up shifting mid-moment and the blow lands on his rather shapely backside instead.

Cullen's eyes go wide, fingers tumbling out fingers gone limp. The roar of the television is impossibly loud in the ensuing silence, but Dorian swears he hears Cullen's breath hitch.

"I have to...uh... I mean, I have things to..." Cullen lifts a fist to his mouth, coughing into it in a way that can't be anything other than awkward with the red fanning out across his cheeks. "Excuse me."

He beats a retreat before Dorian can even manage to blink, door to his bedroom slamming shut behind him.

Dorian looks down at the belt in his hand then back at the closed door. "Oh... _kaffas_."

\--

The sensible thing to do would be to forget all about it, but Dorian imagines time has already proven how difficult that can be for him. Which is how he winds up with his face buried in his arms while the bastards that pass for his friends all laugh around him in the middle of the coffee shop that got claimed as their own at some point along the line (that Cassandra managed to rope Cullen into working their with her certainly managed to help that).

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but..." Curtis manages to keep a straight face for about as long as it takes for Dorian to peek out to scowl at him. "No, actually I take it back, I'm not sorry at all."

"I never imagined Cullen would be in to that sort of..." Josephine clears her throat, the tips of her ears noticeably pink even though the glint in her eyes in surprisingly interested. "Are you sure that he...?"

Dorian snorts. "His reaction was too blatant to be taken as anything else, believe me."

"Called it." All heads swivel towards Iron Bull (if he has another name none of them ever bothered to find out) as one. He lifts his hands up as he shrugs, looking far too smug. Or maybe it's the hint of hunger there that makes Dorian's hackles rise, although he really doesn't want to focus on that. "What? A boy like that can get himself so tightly wound up sometimes that he's in danger of snapping in two. He needs someone who can make him slow down, lift him out of whatever bullshit he's stuck in into a safe place."

"You sound like you've put a lot of thought into that," Dorian says. He doesn't realize he's frowning too until Bull laughs.

"Force of habit," he says. "I'm not going to go poaching your man. And besides..." His eyes slide over to Curtis in a way that makes the man perk up in his seat, face bright, and Dorian slaps a hand over his face.

"Maker, yes, I get it, you have your own boyfriend to do unspeakable things to." He lifts his legs without even missing a beat, narrowly missing the kick that Curtis aims at him under the table. "But I..." He runs a hand through his hair, refusing to tug at it. "What do you suggest I do about my current predicament?"

"Give him a test," Bull says. "Something simple that'll let you see whether he really enjoyed that little blow as much as you think he did."

"Please tell me you're not suggesting that I molest him right here in the shop," Dorian groans.

"No, although that is quite the image." He snickers at the way Dorian squeaks his name in fury. "Go for something simple. I don't think you'll be displeased with the reaction."

\--

The words bounce through Dorian's mind for the rest of the week, but he can't think of any way to put them into action until he wanders into the coffee shop again, near dead on his feet after his last class of the day to find Cassandra glaring at him.

"Hey now!" He hoists his hands up in the air. "I can assure you whatever's managed to go wrong today couldn't have been my fault at all."

It's almost soothing to hear her familiar grumble of disgust when the alternative is having her yell at him. "I have no doubt of how easy it'd be to find  _something_  you're at fault for, but not today." She shakes her head. "Cullen hasn't taken a break today."

"You mean within these past few hours or..." Dorian trails off, eyes catching the way Cassandra's jaw sets. "But he's been here since opening!" Which when you're the person others are depending on to supply them with the coffee for their morning rush means rolling out of bed somewhere around five in the morning. And that's on a  _good_  day.

"I'm well aware of that." Cassandra sighs, something that makes her face soften all at once. "Just...talk to him? He listens to you." 

She's striding off to deal with another customer as the bells above the door jingle before Dorian can come up with quite what he thinks of  _that_. So he turns on his heel instead, searching out Cullen until he locates the man in question fiddling with the supplies station. He cocks his hip up against the tiny wooden counter and any other time he would laugh at how Cullen curses under his breath, struggling to realign what got jostled out of place before even realizing just who caused it in the first place.

The twinge of color across his cheeks when he _does_ realize, though, is still as endearing as ever.

"So," Dorian drawls that first word out for a good few seconds, arching a single brow, "what's this I hear about you forsaking your health again?" 

"I'm not—"

"Really, so it was  _another_ Cullen Rutherford I saw bent over his desk, pulling all-nighters to get his term papers finished?" Dorian clasps his hand over his mouth, gasping with all the drama he can muster (which, to be fair, is a considerable amount). "Please tell me more about this secret twin of yours. It sounds like a perfect setup for one of Varric's stories, don't you think?"

Cullen tries to frown at him, but there's too much humor in his eyes. Except that those eyes also have bags lounging dangerously low beneath them now and how had Dorian not caught on to that sooner? Ah, yes, because he had been lost wallowing in his own issues again like a damn fool.

"It's kind of you to worry," Cullen says, "but I know my limits so it's really—"

Dorian's mind doesn't quite catch up to what his body is planning on doing until his hands are around Cullen's wrists, pinning the man back against the counter. "No, you see, the problem here is that you really don't." He breathes in, trying to hide quite how shaky it is. "You just keep pushing through it all and you're far too honorable to ever let any of us assume it's an issue or listen to us when we try to stop it. And I can accept that side of you—perhaps I'm even somewhat impressed by it—but you can't just expect me to stand by and do nothing when you take it to far."

It isn't until he starts to rev down somewhat that he realizes just how close he has managed to get to Cullen. Their noses aren't touching at least, but it's a close thing, especially when he can all but tell from this range just what shade of red Cullen is turning.

"I...uh... I'll... I mean..." Cullen ducks his head, trying to clear his throat only for it to come out like something between a choke and a squeak. "I'll try to do better in the future?" He peeks up at Dorian. "Your help would always be...well...appreciated, though."

And then, just like that, he's taking advantage of Dorian's astonishment to wiggle free, beating a fast retreat to the break room. If the gears in his mind weren't still turning so speedily, Dorian might have spared a moment to wonder whether or not this was the start of a trend between them.

"Was that the test?"

" _What_?" Dorian whirls around to face Cassandra, who has become rather interested in making sure that the wood of the counter is polished to the point of it serving as a mirror for any unwitting customer in the future. "How did you even..." His eyes narrow. "You've been with Varric again, haven't you?"

There's no way not to find the damp towel that gets thrown in his face disgusting, but at least he gets it off in time to see just how pink Cassandra can manage to get when it comes to a certain writer. (The little smile is just a bonus, although he values his own life far too much to tell her how cute it is. He'll leave that to Varric.)

\--

Dorian doesn't mean to be overly strange, he really doesn't, but he's also quite fairly done with all these twists and tricks. Besides, it's a method of cutting of Cullen's escape routes, so to speak. Or, at least, that's his excuse for when Cullen all but jumps out of skin after flicking on the light to his room only to find Dorian there waiting for him.

"Maker's breath, Dorian, what are you—"

"It's not that I haven't enjoyed this dance of ours," Dorian says. "Believe me, it's been far more fun that I imagined. But it does rather seem like the point's been made now. Why not settle down to the task at hand?"

Cullen shakes his head, trying for a laugh but there's too much of a waver to it. "I'm not sure whether I follow you," is what he manages to come up with.

Dorian isn't disappointed either, not by this point. What's one more test, after all? "How about this then?" He cocks his head to the side, lips spreading upwards slow and sly. "Get across my lap, Cullen."

Cullen must have been waiting to hear far longer than either of them had expected if the way that he lurches forward is any guess. The hand on his rest causes his brow to furrow, though, right up until Dorian hooks his fingers in the waistband of the man's jeans.

"These need to come off still or did you forget? In fact..." Dorian takes his hand back, reveling in the way Cullen's hips squirm as though missing the touch already, so that he can tap at his chin with a finger. "Get all of it off, save for that shirt of yours. Although feel free to undo a few buttons. No need for you to be unduly uncomfortable."

The haste with which Cullen goes about fulfilling the orders tossed his way has Dorian half braced for the moment that the man manages to find a way to trip in the pile of discarded garments at his feet. Except the only tumble that occurs is right at the end when Cullen drapes himself over Dorian's lap at long last, which is so distractingly glorious in and of itself that Dorian has to will himself back to focus. The way Cullen jolts like he's been struck already when Dorian runs a hand across the curve of his ass certainly helps with that.

"Knees up now." He uses a few touches to show Cullen just what he means, but, for the most part, the man hardly needs it to get just right. The man presses his face down into his hands, knees spread to aid with the shift in weight, leaving his ass in the air like a target, which neither of them seem to mind. Either he's done this before or is simply keen for what he wants, but it doesn't much matter when Dorian doesn't intend to ask, at least not now. For the moment, it's more than enough to content himself with the confidence that whatever he manages to do will scourge any memory of another out of Cullen's mind.

The pinch Dorian places on a curve, triggers a shiver that almost makes Cullen slip out of position, but he manages to catch himself just in time. "I must say, you managed to be quite the tease." He shakes his head, having to force back a laugh at how Cullen manages to preen even with his head down the way it is. "But now the time has arrived for a bit of payback, I think."

"What? But I thought..." Cullen barely managed to lift his head, breaking character ever so slightly, before snapping it back down as the first swat comes crashing down without warning.

"Now, now." Dorian clucks his tongue against the roof his mouth. "I may not be nice, but I'd like to think I'm not cruel...per say." His voice softens despite himself, going quiet. "Let me do this for you."

He hadn't meant it as a question (at least not quite) but Cullen answers it anyway. "Of course." He wiggles just a bit settling a bit more solidly into place, although that could have just been an excuse to swipe his cock against Dorian's thigh. "I trust you."

Dorian has to force himself to swallow down the lump in his throat at that because it's one thing to have expected and quite another thing to hear it out loud. At least he's saved from coming up with an answer by allowing himself to get down to the task at hand at long last.

Even if he had never approached Iron Bull directly on the subject, the man had taken it upon himself to toss what must have qualified as a "how to" manual into Dorian's inbox later. It had appealed to his scholarly senses far too well (which had no doubt been the intention) and, so long as he ignored the comments peppered throughout the message by the Bull and a still too smug Curtis, had been beneficial as well.

So he starts slow, building each strike up in temp in batches of five, although if he looses count every so often he can hardly be blamed, given how Cullen is reacting.

It isn't as though he hadn't realized by now that the man enjoyed this—it was what had started all this in the first place—but it would seem that he had underestimated just  _how_ much.

Even just the early strikes have Cullen jolting, fighting to stay in position. Somewhere along the way the gasps turned into grunts occasionally interposed with a whine that has Dorian's trousers becoming too tight all at once. It's getting harder to keep his head in position with the sweat dripping from his forehead making everything far too slippery, but he tries for Dorian which is just too dear. Especially with the way that his cock has managed to curl up almost to his stomach by this point and began dripping a steady flow of precome onto Dorian's trousers even earlier than that.

He turns his head at one point, teeth catching into the starched collar of his button down and, although that image is far more hot than it has any right to be, Dorian is hardly about to put up with not being able to _hear_ just what a good job he's doing. Which is why he aims his next smack on Cullen's thigh, grinning at the way the man jerks up against it, mouth falling open.

"A bit too late to be hiding away," he says, low and teasing.

Cullen lets out another of his whines, hips dipping down before he remembers himself and pulls back up again. "Please, please, I want..." He sucks in a sharp breath then Dorian soothes a gentle hand over the curve of his ass, the heat radiating against his palm now. " _Maker_ , Dorian..."

"What is it?" Dorian says. "Have we not learned how to ask for what we want?"

He can see Cullen's adam's apple bob even from this angle. "N—No, I know how to..." There's a flare of red splaying out across the back of his neck now. "I want to come." He pauses then manages, voice so small, as if Dorian could really refuse him at all, "Please?"

"But of course." Dorian lifts his palm to press at the small of Cullen's back, lifting his thigh up as he guides the man down, and the sound Cullen lets out once his cock makes contact is all but a sob.

He grinds down against Dorian's thigh like an animal in heat, the sheets tangled in his fingers. Dorian winds up with a single arm wrapped around his waist, pressing kisses across up Cullen's back and across the broad expanse of those shoulders. It isn't until he manages to sink his teeth in, however, soothing the sting with a few swipes of his tongue, that Cullen comes undone with a shout, ruining Dorian's trousers in the most impressive fashion.

Dorian rubs his hand in circular motions across Cullen's stomach, waiting until the shaking has subside to mere twitching before tugging back to try to make a grab for the lotion that he had tossed up by the pillow earlier. Except he barely even manages to get half way before Cullen is nosing his way up along his thigh, all but nuzzling in against his cock.

"Not that I'm in any position to complain, but just wait a... Fuck!" Because Cullen has quite clearly decided to make taking incentive the theme of the night, unbuttoning Dorian's trousers with clumsy fingers and tugging the man's cock out so he can his lips around it.

It's sloppy at first, teeth grazing far more than Dorian might have expected, yet Cullen looks at him with eyes that manage to be so hopeful even when glazed over. He hums when Dorian slides his fingers through those golden curls and the affect that has is absolutely brilliant. Cullen isn't even bothered when Dorian looses what shreds of control he has left and starts rolling his hips up, simply adjusting his mouth just so to accommodate Dorian just so.

Dorian tries to warn him when he feels the warmth curling low in his stomach, body tightening dangerously, but Cullen just takes that as an incentive to let his tongue trail along the underside of Dorian's cock. He licks at his lips, quite pleased to chase after the traces of come that land there, but seems so adorably put out when he realizes he can't reach what's on his chin that Dorian has to use his grip in the man's hair to tug him up into a kiss.

Cullen sighs in pleasure when Dorian tongues his chin clean, although it turns rather quickly into a sound of discontentment when Dorian eases him back down onto the bed.

"Never fret, I'm not going anywhere. I simply think you're in need of this now." This is the one part of things Iron Bull hadn't had to explain to him and it's soothing somehow to slide the lotion on, chasing after the heat left by the redness with the spread of cold. "There we go? Now do you need any water? Or perhaps some tea? I'm sure you've managed to do some rather impressive things to your throat by now."

He tips his face down, angling to catch a glimpse of Cullen's face when the man doesn't answer right away and what he sees there steals his breath away (and not at all in the good way).

"Are you _crying_?"

"No," Cullen insists, even though he's the one swiping at his eyes with the back of his hand. He tries to get up, but Cullen's hand snaps to his back, keeping him down. He huffs, a cross between frustrated and fond. "You don't have to do this, you know. It's nice, but not when you..." He chews on the inside of his mouth, turning his head away. "I mean, I get it, you've had your fun and now..." 

"Unbelievable!" Dorian scowls right back at Cullen when the man frowns up at him. "Did it ever occur to you that this whole display was meant to show how fond I am of you and that I would very much like for this to continue?"

The ensuing silence stretches on for far longer than Dorian's comfortable with and then...

"You know, most people start with roses."

Dorian groans, dragging his hands down his face, but Cullen is laughing in that familiar, warm rumbly way so he can't even hold on to his annoyance for long. "Most  _boring_ people, you mean. Do try to pay attention, amatus."

The endearment rolls off his tongue without him even realizing it at first and he almost tenses until Cullen curls up against him as though he knows exactly what it means.

"I'll do my best, promise."

The corners of Dorian's mouth quirk up as he dips down to press a kiss to Cullen's forehead. "I never had any doubts on that score," he says.

One day—maybe even sooner than he thinks—he will tell Cullen just what the word he whispers when he holds him means among other things. But for now he supposes he can settle for making his future boyfriend a cup of tea and let him doze propped up against his side, drool and all.

 


End file.
